[Concerning 1 Pet. 3:7, on the wife as the weaker vessel] “Too often men read this passage and unfortunately respond to it with a junior high mentality. Thinking of every difference in terms of competition, they start doing a little touchdown dance. ‘My wife loses! I am the strong one!’ But this response just proves, …
And They Were On Fire Too
“Modern prejudices against the Puritans and Reformers make it hard for us to see that sixteenth-century Puritans were not scribblers of fundamentalist screeds, but foremost scholars, poets, historians, and writers . . . It is too often assumed that our Reformers were simply hedge preachers or hot gospelers, but that is a gross caricature. In …
Real Home Authority
“The caricature of headship is that of a bossy man demanding food and sex when and where he wants it. The caricature of submission is that of a mousy wife acting the role of a compliant doormat. But the real model for headship is Jesus Christ . . . Husbands are called to love their …
Some Else Going On
“When a young man is approaching a young woman, she can kid herself about the nature of his interest for a long time. But if he approaches her father, her father knows exactly what is going on. Dad will be much harder to persuade that the young man has suddenly developed a spontaneous interest in …
Full Boil
“The preconditions of the Reformation were everywhere — the heat was spread evenly across the bottom of the pot. When the bubbles first started to appear, they seemed like solitary events — first John Wycliffe . . . then Jan Hus, the Bohemian reformer . . . then Luther. But by the time of Luther, …
So Let’s Not Kid Ourselves
“When a guy singles out a young woman in some romantic fashion, this means that one of two things is happening. Either he is trying to get her into bed dishonorably, or he is attempting to get her into bed honorably” (From 5 Paths, p. 72).
High Art
“Immodest and attractive is easy. Modest and repulsive is easy too. But modest and attractive is an art form” (From 5 Paths, p. 69).
40, Counting Cousin Leroy
“The history of the papacy has been a glorious, textured, ribald, romantic, bizarre, heroic, scandalous, and honorable affair. There have been 267 popes and 39 antipopes, depending on who’s counting” (5 Cities, p. 11).
Preparations
“A father might say that he should be able to tell this suitor no. This is right — he should be able to. But he should have thought of that fifteen years earlier when he was busy building fundamental distrust in his daughter” (From 5 Paths, pp. 64-65).
Thinking It All the Way Through
“The same Old Testament law that required stoning to death for lying about fornication also required a parapet around the roof of an Israelite’s house. This was necessary because they spent a lot of time up there, and the requirement ws comparable to our requirements for railings on second story decks, fences around swimming pools, …